


turn up the lights

by synthetics



Category: VIXX
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-16
Updated: 2016-12-16
Packaged: 2018-09-08 21:49:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8863978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/synthetics/pseuds/synthetics
Summary: clubs aren't taekwoon's thing, but he lets hakyeon talk him into it anyway.





	

**Author's Note:**

> _❝i just wanna see you dancing.❞ - hurts,[lights](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bms3dfEzJco)_

"I'm not drunk enough for this," Taekwoon muttered as he slid into the back seat of the cab. 

Hakyeon merely smiled as he took his seat beside him. "You can fix that when we get there." Taekwoon murmured something incomprehensible under his breath and was ignored. Hakyeon gave the address to the driver without asking for repetition. With a heavy sigh (that he made sure Hakyeon could hear), he placed his elbow next to the window and rested his cheek on his hand. He watched the neon signs of the city go by, some too quickly to read, and he wondered why he let Hakyeon talk him into this in the first place. He hated clubs: there were too many people (many of whom were only interested in getting in his pants) and not enough liquor - although that had more to do with his wallet than the venue. And even if he did manage to make it to the bar there was always the looming possibility of getting something spilled on him. He wasn't going to be able to do much else other than stand against the wall even stiffer than a statue. He’d also have avoid eye contact with anybody. People always interpreted eye contact as an invitation. At least his white sneakers were new and would be nice to stare at.

He picked at a loose thread that stuck out from one of the pockets of his dark jeans. It was less than a ten minute drive to the club, only about a block or two closer than the one they usually went to, so he didn’t have much time to deal with his dread. The fare wasn’t awful but he still made Hakyeon pay via making no offer to do so himself. He knew in the morning that he would be woken up by a frantic phone call from the older along the lines of "I spent all of my money last night on drinks and now I'm in someone's apartment and would like to leave before he wakes up can you please help me." It was only fair that Hakyeon paid for one trip.

"I thought you said Wonsik and Jaehwan were going to meet us here," he mentioned while Hakyeon stood at the side of the road smoothing out his white t-shirt and making sure there were no weird creases in his leather jacket. Taekwoon had raised his eyebrow at the jacket at first, but Hakyeon assured him he had simply swiped it from his roommate's closet for the night and he wouldn't even miss it and they left it at that.

"They'll be here soon,” Hakyeon reassured him, “Jaehwan texted me a few minutes ago saying they were caught up in traffic."

Taekwoon scoffed. There were a list of things he wanted to comment on (such as how there was very little traffic on the way there), but he kept his mouth shut. It was better that he hadn't said anything, because they only had to wait a few more seconds before a cab pulled up and Wonsik and Jaehwan tumbled out of it. Wonsik's hair was standing up on one side as if he had just gotten out of bed, but other than that he looked fine. With his white t-shirt and ripped black skinny jeans it looked almost as if he and Hakyeon had planned outfits together. Jaehwan had on a blue low cut shirt and black leather pants that were just about as tight as Wonsik's jeans. He had to constantly move his dyed brown hair out of his eyes in the shifting night air. Together they had a look that would likely make any young college student drool, only exaggerated by the fact that they appeared to be attached at the hip.

It was obvious everyone was there, but Hakyeon still felt compelled to do a headcount before they approached the doors to the nightclub. The club's sign was right above them, casting fluorescent pink onto their faces and turning shadows purple as they entered. They gave their ID's to the doorman and were able to tuck them back into their wallets, given that they were of legal age to drink, and proceeded into the main room.

There were all kinds of lights in the room - magentas that faded to blues that faded to yellows and then to purple, the occasional flash of white lights, and circular lights that floated along the walls to mimic the reflections of a disco ball - but it still remained dim. The bass in the music was enough to echo in Taekwoon's chest. The music never paused, it simply merged from one melody to the other, the DJ able to find the perfect places to switch songs. There was never a lull in the movement on the floor, a constant shifting in a mass of bodies that looked more like a mess of raised arms from the distance Taekwoon was standing.

His first order of business was to make a beeline to the bar, which to his dismay was a lot more crowded than the bar at the club he was used to. Young people with x's drawn on both of their hands in black sharpie (faded from a failed attempt to wash them off on the restroom) made doe-eyes at customers of all ages and genders so long as they didn't bear the same marks. One of them approached him as he tried to order himself a simple gin and tonic to start off, a girl with thick eyeliner and hair dyed lilac purple who batted her wide brown eyes at him, and he did his best to smile politely before he waved her away. He was about to sit down with his drink before he felt someone tug on the sleeve of his t-shirt.

"What do you-" He had whipped around, irritation as slight undertone in his voice, until he realized it was Wonsik. He had a sheepish grin on his face and was scratching the back of his head. Taekwoon cleared his throat to repeat his question in a kinder manner, "What do you want?"

"I just wanted to know if you were interested in coming down to the dancefloor with the rest of us," his voice trailed off at the end as if he were embarrassed of his request.

Taekwoon raised an eyebrow. "Is Jaehwan trying to make you jealous again?" Wonsik started to sputter and he chuckled, "It looks like he is succeeding." He craned his neck to see if he could spot Jaehwan among the crowd, but he must have been somewhere towards the middle because he wasn't anywhere in sight.

"Please?"

Taekwoon made a show of sighing to make it appear as if the favour were an inconvenience to him, but his amusement showed on his face in the form of a smirk. He quickly gulped down the entirety of his drink (while Wonsik watched with wide eyes) and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand as he stood. As they made their way to the dancefloor, a man passed them wearing nothing more than a pair of tight black briefs and Taekwoon had to consciously tell himself not to stare.

It was easier to see Jaehwan once they were closer to the clump of bodies that was supposed to be the dancefloor. He was leaning against a man clearly younger than he was, head thrown back against his shoulder and they each moved their hips against each other in grinding motions. After a few seconds he moved his head back to its normal position to survey the crowd, a smile on his face that only widened once he spotted Wonsik and Taekwoon. Taekwoon could have sworn he felt the heat of Wonsik's blood boiling, but whether that was from jealousy or something else he couldn't tell. Wonsik looked at him and Taekwoon gave him a small nod as encouragement to "go get him" and watched as he merged into the thick of the crowd.

There was an empty spot against the wall, and Taekwoon moved to stand against it. He wanted to go unnoticed, but instead he stuck out like a sore thumb - the only stiffness among a room of fluid motion.

A girl stood against the wall next to him and he became nervous about confrontation (he had once accidentally made a drunk girl cry by rejecting her advances) until another girl joined her. She stood in front of the one against the wall and grabbed her by the waist to pull her in for a kiss before her hand started to wander against the outside of her thigh and under her skirt. Taekwoon felt more relieved than was likely appropriate, and averted his eyes to stare at his toes.

“Do you want to dance?” he heard someone ask, and looked up to see a man of husky build with a red hoodie (hood over his head) and glasses. Taekwoon felt his heart drop - he’d never expected to be confronted by anybody, it was the one thing he wanted to avoid. He scratched his head for any possible excuse to say “no” other than the word itself, but just stood there mouth agape as the man repeated the question.

“Oh! There you are!” said an unrecognizable voice as someone grabbed his hand and started dragging him from the dancefloor. “I’ve been trying to text and call you for twenty minutes!” Taekwoon stammered over words and followed until they were outside at a fenced off area that was supposed to function as a patio. There likely would have been more people out if it wasn’t cold enough for him to see his breath. Once they were in better light, Taekwoon realized that he had never actually met this man in his life. He had a boyish look to his face in the sense that he looked like he was up to something, and his hair was dyed a pastel pink and slightly frizzy from all of the activity inside. He pulled a pack of cigarettes out of the pocket of his black jeans and a lighter from the other, and he must have noticed Taekwoon’s confused expression because then he spoke, “It looked like you needed a bit of help back there. Do you want a smoke?”

Taekwoon nodded, “Thank you,” and then as the other pulled out a second cigarette and put it into his hand he realized his nod had been misinterpreted. He didn’t want to give it back for fear of being awkward, so he held it unlit between two fingers. “My name is Taekwoon, by the way.”

“Hongbin.” Hongbin held the cigarette between his lips and used his hand to protect it from the wind as he lit it. He then gestured for Taekwoon to lean over and help him light it using the burnt end of his own. Taekwoon took a drag from the cigarette but he breathed in too much too quickly and before he knew it he was doubled over coughing. When he looked up, Hongbin had a shit-eating grin on his face. “It’s been awhile, huh?”

“Not since college.” He coughed a couple more times before he got it under control and began to wish he never downed his drink when Wonsik asked him for help.  “Are you here alone?”

Hongbin chuckled, “No. My friend Sanghyuk is back there - I think he was dancing with your friend’s boyfriend.” Even Taekwoon couldn’t keep the smile off of his face after that comment.

He thought he was imagining it when felt his phone buzz in his pocket until it happened a second and third time. When he removed it from his pocket he saw Jaehwan’s name lit up on the screen. He looked to Hongbin apologetically as he brought the phone to his face and was given a toothy smile in return. “Jaehwan?”

“Where are you?”

“‘Hello’ to you, too.”

“Taekwoon,” Jaehwan breathed, clearly at the beginning of losing his patience, “seriously.”

Taekwoon froze, at the verge of panicking for a second time that night. “What’s wrong?”

“Hakyeon drank too much. Can you take him back in a cab or something? I don’t want to leave Wonsik here alone.”

He let out a sigh of relief so powerful he could hear the static over the line from overloading the microphone. “Jesus,” he muttered, “I thought someone had died or something.”

“Well, if you don’t hurry up, someone might.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll be right there, where are you?”

“We’re at the front door.”

“On my way,” he said and hung up before Jaehwan could say anything more.

“So,” Hongbin sat on one of the patio tables and swung his legs. “You gotta go?” Taekwoon nodded and was about to speak when Hongbin used two fingers to beckon him closer. He felt the presence of a hand on his waist as he was pulled into a kiss. It was short and chaste, gone almost before he processed it, and he felt cheated. Like a child who yells “I wasn’t ready!” after losing a race. Hongbin’s voice had a sing-song quality to it as he purred, “Have a good night.”

Taekwoon stood there for a moment before he nodded and meekly managed to get out a “You, too,” before he realized he really needed to go. He mentally cursed the fact that the patio had to be on the complete opposite side of the building as he pushed and squeezed himself through the throng of bodies on the dancefloor for the second time that night. He found Jaehwan right outside the door with a disgruntled look on his face he was failing to hide. “Hey.”

Jaehwan turned around. “Thank god,” he sighed. Hakyeon hung off of Jaehwan from an arm wrapped around his neck. He handed him off to Taekwoon, who held him in a similar manner. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

Taekwoon waved him off. “Don’t worry about it. Just help me call a cab, please.” He managed to get Hakyeon to hobble to the side of the road as he murmured incoherent nonsense. Getting him into the cab ended up being the hard part. “Hakyeon,” Taekwoon grunted - after he managed to unwrap Hakyeon from his neck the older hit his head on the car and due to this was refusing to get in, “you have to duck.” He put gentle pressure on Hakyeon’s shoulder to get him to lean down and then not so gracefully pushed him into the cab as he apologized to the driver and gave their address. He couldn’t get Hakyeon to buckle his seatbelt, but at least he was in the cab. He leaned an elbow against the window and let his head rest on that hand as he watched the streetlights. The other arm was being used by Hakyeon as a pillow.

“I’m sorry,” Hakyeon muttered against Taekwoon’s shoulder.

Taekwoon was caught off-guard. “For what?”

“I wanted to have fun,” he nuzzled himself closer to Taekwoon in order to coax the younger to put an arm around him and he paused for so long that Taekwoon was about to speak right before he continued his sentence, “I ruined yours.”

“Nonsense,” he replied, “I was getting ready to leave anyway. You know I’m not a big fan of clubs.” It was only half of the truth but he didn’t want Hakyeon to hold all of the blame. Something must have been eating at him, as it wasn’t like himself to get carried away. Usually he was the most cautious out of all of them. He lifted Hakyeon’s wallet from his pocket and took a couple notes out of it because he wasn’t about to pay for the cab since it was really Hakyeon who needed it. Paying the driver was easy compared to trying to haul Hakyeon out of the car like a sack of flour.  


When he reached for his keys at the door to the apartment something else came out of his pocket with them, but he wasn’t able to look at it until he dragged Hakyeon inside and dropped him on the couch. He took the older’s shoes off and then set them by the door before he went to his own bed where he was able to look at the object in his hand. It was a translucent pink lighter with a phone number written on it in black marker, smudged but still legible. He didn’t remember putting it in his pocket and he wasn’t as much of a smoker as he used to be so he didn’t have any lying around anymore. Then he remembered his conversation with Hongbin and how the other kissed him before he left with a hand on his waist. It was wishful thinking, but what if Hongbin had slipped it into his pocket at that moment? He placed the lighter on his nightstand, standing up so he could see the numbers, and stared for a while. The chances of his question being true seemed miniscule, but it also seemed as if there was no reason he’d have a lighter unless someone else put it there. He laid on his back, gaze turned to the ceiling, and wondered if his theory was plausible or simply a teenage daydream.


End file.
